How we threw away the green rulebook in our obsession to keep up with China

By Jay Mazoomdaar

With more than 80 percent forest cover, Arunachal
Pradesh is one of the last repositories of virgin wilderness where new
species are still discovered every few months. The state also faces a 15
percent power shortfall. So, a section of Arunachal’s political
leadership is desperate to harness the vast potential of its numerous
fast-flowing rivers. More than 140 MoUs have been inked to set up
hydro-electricity projects (HEPS) in the state.

In Tawang district, this power rush reached an absurd high. Seven
rivers flow through the Tawang basin, where as many as 13 HEPS have been
proposed across just 2,085 sq km. There is hardly any agricultural land
left in this hilly district where the armed forces and civic
infrastructural facilities occupy more than half the area. Once the HEPS
come up, even the remaining cropland by the rivers will be lost.
Besides, 13 HEPS will require a peak workforce of more than 1 lakh
people, double the population of the district. One can imagine what the
influx will mean to the Monpa residents, whose indigenous rights are
protected by the Constitution.

A part of the Eastern Himalayan Biodiversity hotspot, Tawang is also
one of the 200 globally important eco-regions and the only place on
earth that hosts all varieties of Rhododendron. It is also home to the
red panda, snow leopard, mountain goat and 150 species of birds. The
impact of intensive blasting, tunnelling and submergence required for
building 13 HEPS in this pristine landscape will be an environmental
disaster.

Only nine years ago, then chief minister Gegong Apang announced a
plan to set up a 2,000 sq km bio-reserve. As political priorities
changed rapidly in Itanagar and New Delhi, Buddhist monks from the Monpa
community made the Tawang monastery the centre of resistance. Since
April last year, Save Mon Region Federation has repeatedly defied
Section 144 and clashed with the police to demand that all 13 proposed
HEPS, including the 600 MW Tawang-I and 800 MW Tawang-II, be scrapped.
As recently as Christmas Eve last year, a violent showdown led to
several arrests and injured protesters.

While both Tawang-I and II already had the required green clearances
from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the pressure from
the local communities and the obvious irrationality of setting up so
many HEPS in such a tiny basin made the Forest Advisory Committee
recommend a cumulative impact study instead of evaluating each project
on its own. That was last September. In just four months, the table was
turned.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan came under strong pressure
from various infrastructure ministries and the PMO. Her high-profile
face-off with Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the proposed National
Investment Board (NIB) forced the PMO to dilute the NIB’s overriding
powers and rechristen it a Cabinet committee. But soon enough, it was
time for quid pro quo.

The NHAI claimed the first pound of flesh by making the MoEF allow
work along the non-forest parts of the projects, pending forest
clearance. With the coal ministry already breathing down her neck, Power
Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia paid Natarajan a visit. Then, China
announced three new dams on the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) along the
border.

While construction of a 510 MW plant at Zangmu in the Tibet
Autonomous Region is going on since 2010, the three new projects — at
Dagu (640 MW), Jiacha (320 MW) and Jiexu (unspecified) — took the
cumulative yield to beyond 1,470 MW. The Indian answer, insisted the
power ministry, had to be fast-tracking Tawang-I and II and generate
1,400 MW.

So, the MoEF promptly wrote to Arunachal CM Nabam Tuki to proceed
with the basin study and the Tawang HEPS were granted stage-I clearance
without bothering for any cumulative or specific impact study. There is a
rider of a consolation though: the other 11 HEPS will have to wait till
their cumulative impact is assessed. That is until China decides to
come up with a few more dams.